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Strategies & Market Trends : Trader J's Inner Circle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: melinda abplanalp who wrote (8894)	2/14/1999 12:40:00 PM
From: Poet	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 56535

Jon and Melinda: Shorting: First, can we pretend I'm posting this on Tuesday so I can say I took the weekend off from SI? I'm addicted... I agree with both of you about the manner in which some of the organized shorts post on their threads (and Anthony @ Pacific is a good example). There's a little too much chest-beating and freaky talk about being "on the dark side" for my taste. However, shorting is a good tool for traders and Anthony has called some very shorts recently. I have shorted regularly since I got my first margin account a few months ago. I make my decision to short based on a particular stock's recent moves (has it been looking weak, did it pop way too high on so-so news?)and the market action in general that day. Friday, for instance, was a great day to look for shorts immediately following the impeachment news. We had had a very "up" day in the market the previous day and many issues had popped way up. Friday could have gone either way --up based on relief that the impeachment was over, or down. The task is to choose an issue that had EITHER been weak even on an up day like Thursday (ENMD, for instance) or that had really popped up the day before and was a likely candidate to deflate in the face of a sliding market. I short, not with the messianic zeal of "We're gonna short this pig", but as a natural component to playing the market's inevitable ups and downs. I'd love to hear others write on their shorting. I know a couple of traders who do it better than I and I'll bet I could coax into posting on the topic if anyone's interested.

To: melinda abplanalp who wrote (8894)	2/14/1999 4:51:00 PM
From: LTK007	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 56535

I read awhile back that shorting while a perfectly worthy way of making money,only 10% of investors actually do it--as their is a mind-set that it is somehow "unamerican"(whatever that means)---but the fact is I am now preparing more and more to start shorting stocks----as for the noise factor from shorts---I think when only shorting on TA pullback inevitable stocks--they should just go about their business politely----IF a stock is almost positively to positively being a scam,then I tolerate the noise level a great deal more--and get rather noisy myself at times:)--trouble is when shorts get in short fever they get into a combat mode which is NOT necessary I believe--I am working hard now at being both a long thinker and a short thinker,get a balance,is the best way I feel.Good Luck,Max90